Closing the loop in service classifications:Towards a comprehensive classification of business services

This working paper tries to consolidate the existing knowledge on service classifications by confronting the empirically validated classification of Wynstra et al. (2006) [Wynstra, F., Axelsson, B. and Van der Valk, W. (2006). An Application-based Classification to Understand Buyer-Supplier Interaction in Business Services. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 17, 5, 474-496] with existing classifications. We conduct an extensive literature review to identify available classifications and the underlying classification dimensions. We then confront these dimensions with the usage-based classification of business services. We find that added value can be obtained from combining the usage-based classification with the classification of Kellogg and Nie [Kellogg, D.L. and Nie, W. (1995). A Framework for Strategic Service Management. Journal of Operations Management, 13, 4, 323-337], who specifically propose the dimensions 'degree of customization‘ and 'degree of customer interaction‘, since this draws attention to the capabilities required from the side of the supplier for proper service delivery.